Fiber Fool

Yes, I am aware that it is not Friday today according to the calendar. However, SIL2 is getting married on Saturday. Though neither of us has a role in the wedding we decided to make a long weekend of it so we will begin our weekend tomorrow morning. So, for me, today is Friday.

Last night I rooted around in the garden in hopes that we won’t have any produced spoiled before our return. I’ll make another pass tomorrow morning to be sure. The photo above shows what came from the garden last night, aside from about 4-5 cups of basil (of both varieties, but mostly the common sweet basil). Doesn’t it look great? We got heirloom tomatoes and were unsure of their final color. But after leaving one on the vine for a week to ten days at the same orange color we determined the monster variety are to be deep yellow to orange.

In order to use some of the harvest I had made some polenta up early in the day and wrapped it into logs using waxed paper. Then DH sliced and pan fried them and we topped them with a variety of things, including some of our tomatoes some of DH’s cheese and a few chopped herb sauces.

With just the two of us we have taken to making our herb sauces by hand chopping rather than using the food processor. It give the sauce that touch of rustic and just has a nice mouthfeel since it isn’t turned into a cohesive paste. I made pesto using mostly the traditional sweet basil, but I tossed in a bit of the spicier globe basil. I’ve also become enamored with the chimichurri sauce that was posted at Tea & Cookies not too long ago. Those who are unfamiliar with chimichurri, it is a blend of parsley and cilantro that has some cayenne, white vinegar or citrus juice and olive oil. While it is traditionally a sauce that is served with steak, it is like summer in a bowl on top of pasta. It also made a wonderful polenta topping and paired especially well with the avocado.

The pan fried polenta was a great late summer supper. It requires only a small amount of heat and you can top it with a large variety of things from the garden or a farmer’s market. I wasn’t sure if we’d feel satisfied with just the polenta for dinner, but it served us quite well.

This was our first strawberry off of one of the everbearing strawberries. There were a few early on in the season right after we planted them, but they got nabbed by something. I’m always amazed by how much better the locally grown ones taste and how they are red throughout rather than just on the outside. DH and I have been splitting the berries as they become ripe. I think we’ll have a quiet time here for a bit, but there are more set and working towards ripening.

It is to be a real scorcher this weekend. Thankfully, the forecasted lows have been higher than reality and we’ve been able to get the house down to about 65 degrees overnight so we aren’t exceeding about 77 or 78 in the house (and that was with canning both days). We aren’t reaching those temps until it is very nearly cool enough to open up and turn the fans on again so the 90+ degrees have been bearable. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to say the same for the nearly 100 degrees, but we’ll see! Stay cool and have a good weekend!

ETA: After hitting “publish” I went to stretch and caused a terrible spasm in my upper back on the side that usually doesn’t have any problems. Trying to wash my hair or get dressed is pure agony, calling forth tears. I’m laying flat on a heating pad and can read blogs, but typing is rather uncomfortable, so please excuse my lack of commenting at the moment or replying to comments left here.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to act surprised. In fact, I suspect you were all expecting more garden photos today. That’s okay. I don’t mind being predictable. But, today I’ll be more positive. Though if you know of something I should be doing with these plants let me know. If the back of the seed packet doesn’t advise me of it I don’t know what I am supposed to do.

Above you’ll see that the Minnesota Midget Melons are going to town growing. The bed was amended with a fair bit of compost, but now that it is growing vigorously and blooming should I be fertilizing? As with the tomatoes do I need to be careful of nitrogen content of the fertilizer? Or should I just top dress with some more compost? Really, these questions apply to all of the photos found below as well.

Here are watermelon blossoms and a squash blossom. Can you tell I love the twice daily check ups on the garden? It is ever changing!

Something has caused the everbearing strawberry plants to go nuts now. Prior to this it was only the wild variety that has been sending out runners. I figured it was because they weren’t trying to flower and fruit like the everbearing. That said, one of the everbearing plants has nearly overnight had 6-8 blooms, set a fair number of berries and is sending out new runners every day! We haven’t done any post-planting fertilizing, just deep watering every 3-4 days with a soaker hose. But it sure is nice to see that those guys are settling in as much as the wild variety. I just hope they don’t choke out the wild ones! LOL!

Yes indeedy, you read the title of the post correctly - bet you don’t often think compost is beautiful huh? Well, back in early June when I visited Cathy before EPWM she sent me home with a lovely bunch of peonies. They lasted a good ten days or so and then they looked “done.” Chris was about to arrive so I was doing a last minute cleaning/straightening and took the vase and flowers out to the compost pile. I gave the vase a fling. There was just something about how all the peonies landed on the compost and the contrast of the pink of the still alive, but on their way out flowers against the brown of the compost. I *had* to run into the house to get the camera and take some shots. I took 56, believe it or not! And, I didn’t touch a flower/petal/blade of grass! These are some of my favorites…

The original flowers from Cathy were gorgeous and I’m sorry I didn’t get photos of them before they started their afterlife in the compost heap. But I guess this just proves SIL3’s theory that I’m definitely “goth on the inside.” :-)

Stop to see some beauty in the unusual subject this weekend and have a great one!

Last Thursday our houseplant count went from two to nine when Drew brought home seven new plants that he had rooted from cuttings at work. We potted them last Thursday evening before the Script Frenzy kick-off party. We’ve since added another three plants from a gal in my water aerobics class so we now have an even dozen!

I have to say it feels great to have so many green things in the house again. I just hope I do better this time around! Have a great weekend!

1. New Houseplants, 2. More Philodendron, 3. Wet Spider Plant, 4. Philodendron, 5. Water Drops on Philodendron, 6. Tangle of Philodendrons, 7. Philodendron Leaf, 8. Drops on a Spinder Plant, 9. Varigated Philodendron